17 comments:

What a lovely butterfly Wilson painted! Thanks for the inspiration :) So nice to come visit your blog and see how fulfilled the kids are and what wonderful teachers you & Rick are. You are truly a blessing in this community!

Jenn...you are not a dork! We haven't figured out what it is yet, either. Our neighbor found one whole and one partially eaten while on a walk down our street this week. She brought us some branches today to help us identify it. It looks like a pinecone, but it's softer like a pineapple! Can't wait to figure out what it is....

Oh, I was just going to ask what that thing was too... then I read the comments. It looks so interesting. Let us know when you figure it out, and thanks for being inspiring. We haven't really 'started' our year yet, and I have 3 kids too, and so it's nice to see what you're up to.s

We figured out what the cone is from! The tree is called Araucaria bidwillii, or "Bunya-Bunya". It is mostly found in Australia. The cones are huge, and the seeds are eaten by squirrels and large birds. The Bunya name is an Aboriginal word, and the Aboriginies eat the seeds raw or cooked...and also made into bread (Hmmm...sounds like another homelearning project!). It looks a lot like the Monkey Puzzle Tree and is sometimes called False Monkey Puzzle. The cones are very heavy!

Kathleen, thank you for sending a link to your sister! Time management is a constant challenge. I make a weekly schedule with blocks of time for homeschooling, lessons, field trips, eating and play. Even so, sometimes we just "go with the flow" if something really neat turns up, like the bunya bunya cones!